


Too Little, Too Late

by SaraJaye



Category: Fushigi Yuugi
Genre: Angst, F/M, Nakago Is An Idiot, Regret, Taking The Bullet, Tragedy, burial
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-26
Updated: 2014-08-26
Packaged: 2018-02-14 20:23:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2201862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/pseuds/SaraJaye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes we only realize the truth after our last chance has been wasted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Too Little, Too Late

**Author's Note:**

> _Author's choice, author's choice, it's too late to ask or give forgiveness when somebody dies._

For the first time in a long time, he feels a sting of regret. There's no sense in disbelief of what happened, the cold proof lies against him. Decay has yet to set in so if not for the bloody wound in her back he would almost assume she was only sleeping, but he knows better.

 _I've been an idiot,_ he thinks. He seldom allows himself even a moment of self-reproach these days, but he watched her die. Watched her take the blow for him, heard her last words. Even after he'd told her he didn't love her and never would she still wouldn't let him die.

Devotion, or foolishness? Maybe a little of both.

He gathers her body into his arms, keeping it stable against him. Not out of love, he tells himself, but obligation. She protected him, so it's only right that he gives her a proper burial somewhere more private. The midst of a battlefield is no place for a funeral.

The whole way, he tells himself he still doesn't love her. He never loved her, he hasn't been capable of loving in a long time. He let her offer her body, her soul, her life to him knowing he couldn't give her anything back. _But that isn't love._

When he finally has a moment's peace, after the battles have ended, he gives her the burial she deserves. A warrior's burial, for a woman who fought bravely until the end.

It's when he sees a lone flower nearby that something inside him begins to give. It's red, deep and passionate and vibrant, standing out against the green grass and the night sky.

_Damn it..._

She took care of him. She healed his wounds. She gave him everything she had.

That was love. And only now does he realize that perhaps, deep in a place where even his worst memories could not touch, he loved her in his own way.

He plucks the flower and lays it gently across the grave. It's the only apology he can offer now, even if it's too late for her forgiveness.


End file.
